Overview

Robotics come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and one of the things
they share is some form of control element. It can be purely analog,
as some of Tilden’s BEAM robots are, or a laptop computer running
Linux. The thread linking them together though is the ability to take
input from sensors, make some sort of decision based on that input and
then command some new action.

This section of the web site has four several categories of controllers:

The LAB-X3 from microEngineering Labs is a PIC trainer board with a serial port, an LCD, and
some push buttons. With a ZIF socket installed it can be used as a programmer. I have used it
to test out bits of PIC code.

The progenitor of a number of concepts in the maker space, the BASIC Stamp was a pretty
revolutionary product at the time. Easy to program, quick to deploy, it greatly reduced
the slope of the learning curve which really helped get people going.

ST Micro released a very cost effective evaluation board ($15) for their
Cortex M4 offering called the STM32F4-Butterfly. The manufacturer, Embest
out of China, came out with some expansion boards for it as well.

One of the early FPGA experimenter boards, it was designed by an engineer
in Australia named Tony Burch. One of its innovations was the use of
attachable ‘plug on’ boards which was copied by Digilent and others
in their FPGA designs.

Perhaps the most common way that people get access to design kits or
evaluation boards is through a manufacturer seminar. This can introduce
you to new architectures which you might not normally consider.

Both Atmel
and Microchip
have programs that run every year. For a modest cost these seminars
will give you hands on experience with the latest and greatest chips
that these manufacturers offer. You will also usually come away with a
evaluation board or a tool which will help you in your efforts to build
robots. If you are are a consultant or a operate a business where you
can use this information in your work, you can look into write off
the expense on your taxes as additonal training. Consult a tax
professional who knows your situation for specific guidance on that.